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Powder Highway

After yet another great day on the slopes at any of the resorts on the Powder Highway in southeast British Columbia, the last thing you want to do is make boring evening choices. Do we eat fast-food, do we order in, do we just starve until breakfast? None of the above!

Set within a broad valley in the rainshadow of the Kootenay Rockies, at the halfway point between Spokane and Calgary, Cranbrook long served as a transportation hub for trains, planes, fur traders and fruit growers.

For many stateside skiers, Whitewater Resort is the first attraction on the Powder Highway, southeast of British Columbia’s celebrated collection of eight ski resorts and dozens of heli and cat-skiing operations and luxury lodges.

Just the name of this place alone – The Powder Highway – conjures up images of you and your friends skiing or riding long lines, leaving a wake of fluffy powder in your happy trails. Then ending the day, kicking back at one of the slope-side restaurants or bars.

Here are four resorts along the Powder Highway that will make you forget the damp and rainy winter back home in Washington. You'll discover the joy of a true Canadian winter that brings piles of snow to the slopes and quickly learn why they call this the Powder Highway.

Meet Blair Craig, a true mountain man, who left the big city more than 30 years ago, escaping to the slower paced, mountain-rimmed community of Fernie, B.C. with its historic brick and stone clad main street and the meandering Elk River. But most importantly, for someone like Blair, Fernie's big draw is it's famous powder snow.